Spirited Cocktails

I’ve been slow to get behind the whole “molecular mixology” movement. If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that a big part of my mission is to help make the creation of quality, classic cocktails accessible to the home bartender. But anyone who knows me also knows that I’m a hardcore geek. I like gadgets, tools and technology. And that’s why I’ll be going to the Holiday Cocktail class at the International Culinary Center, taught by Nils Norén and Dave Arnold, both of the French Culinary Institute. (I’ve mentioned Dave before – he co-presented the Science of Shaking class at Tales of the Cocktail.)

From the class description:

See innovative techniques, such as carbonation, rotary evaporation, and vacuum infusion, in action. And pick up handy low-tech bartender tricks to help you maximize cocktail taste and texture at home. On the agenda for the night: Nils’ take on traditional Swedish Glögg, a cutting-edge hot buttered rum, and cocktails flamed with the Red Hot Poker (a turbocharged electric rod Dave built for beverage ignition), along with festive snacks for the cocktail hour and a few other surprises.

Dave’s going to ignite cocktails with something called the Red Hot Poker. What other excuse could you possibly need?

Holiday Cocktails with Nils & Dave
December 2, 2009 6:30-8:30pm
462 Broadway at the corner of Grand Street in New York City

Hope to see you there!

Cheers,

-Josh

This evening, my friend Laren (@sweetblogomine) and I joined Jonathan Pogash for his Cocktail Lab class at the Astor Center Lounge. I’ve mentioned Jonathan here before (he was the source for our post on the Maple Plum Sparkler), but to refresh your memory, Jonathan is a cocktail development consultant, and the beverage director for Hospitality Holdings (which manages a number of major bars here in New York, including the Campbell Apartment and Bookmarks Lounge).

I’ve taken a number of classes at Astor Center in the past, and they’ve all offered an opportunity to learn a great deal from some of the country’s most talented mixologists. Be sure to check out their full calendar; if you’re in the area, I highly encourage you to give one a try. Jonathan’s class is actually offered monthly, so you can definitely take that one. If you’re just starting out, I’d suggest the Home Bar Basics course.

In any case, Jonathan’s class tonight was really about developing new cocktails – how to come up with your own recipes using classic cocktails as a guide, but also taking advantage of fresh, seasonal, and often unique ingredients. As an exercise, we broke up into groups and were each given one ingredient that had to make an appearance in whatever cocktail we developed. As long as that ingredient was included, everything else was up to us (think Iron Chef meets… something with booze.) Laren and I paired up, along with another member of the class, and were asigned Averna as our key ingredient.

Averna is a classic Italian liquer, often served as a digestif. It’s very herbal – almost bitter – with hints of citrus and caramel. We figured this would make for a great addition to an autumn cocktail. The result: The Pumpkin Pie

Here’s what you’re going to need:

1 1/2oz Rye (we used ri1, which has a nice spice to it)
1 bar spoon Averna
1 bar spoon maple syrup
1 bar spoon pumpkin puree
1/4oz orange juice
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 dash of pumpkin spice (the supermarket kind; a blend of nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, etc.)
1 egg white
1 orange peel (for garnish)

I know – that’s a lot of ingredients. But many of them are things you probably already have sitting around the house (if not, they’re certainly available at your local grocery store.) Once you have all the ingredients, simply combine everything in a mixing glass.

Because of the egg white in this, we did a double shake. That means that we combined all the ingredients in our shaker *without* ice, and shook well for about 10 seconds. Then we added ice, and shook well for another 15-20 seconds. The result, thanks in large part to the egg white, is a nice foamy cocktail, the consistency of which certainly brings pumpkin pie to mind!

We garnished the cocktail with a flamed orange peel. A regular orange peel will do, but flaming the peel helps to caramelize the citrus oils, giving a nice depth of character to the taste. If you’re unfamiliar with how to flame an orange peel, Jeffrey Morgenthaler has a great walkthrough on his site.

The result: a lovely autumn cocktail, with flavors of pumpkin, spice and maple. I hope you like it!

So thanks to Laren (@sweetblogomine) for a fun time; to Jonathan Pogash for the great instruction, and Astor Center, for hosting the class in such an awesome space!

While I have you – a public service announcement: Laren has actually organized a great event in the Astor Center space next Monday, November 2nd. The event is a fundraiser for the NYC chapter of LUPEC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails), and will be presented in conjunction with the folks from Chartreuse (including Chartreuse Brand Ambassador Todd Richman and Chartreuse Diffusion President Jean Marc Roger). I’ll be there for sure – I encourage you to join us as well. Tickets available from the Astor Center website.

Cheers!

Josh

I don’t know how I ever survived without my iPhone. It helps me manage my e-mail, contacts and calendar. But also gives me directions, plays my music (and my NPR podcasts), and keeps me entertained on the subway. It is my one essential piece of technology.

Today my favorite piece of technology is now married to my favorite activity (drinking, naturally), with the release of Happy Houred (available from iTunes or http://happyhoured.com).

Happy Houred lets you choose your location, the type of bar you’re looking for, etc. and it returns a list of the best deals in your area. Say it’s 4:00 – you’re in Brooklyn, and looking for a beer. Happy Houred shows you the way. 8pm and looking for a cocktail on the Upper East Side? Happy Houred has you covered.

Happy Houred is easily my new favorite iPhone application. And the best news? It’s free.

Go download it.

Now.

We’re sorry to report that it looks like LeNell – of LeNell’s Wine & Spirits Boutique in Brooklyn – is packing her bags and leaving NYC for good. In an unguarded moment at a tasting of American Whiskey last night at Louis 649, LeNell Smothers admitted to the gathered aficionados that she had given up on finding a new space for her famous store and was taking the show to Mexico.

Rumors have swirled since LeNell lost her lease and had to close up shop earlier this year. Talk was that she was heading to London or Amsterdam, but LeNell had flatly denied those rumors, insisting that she was still on the lookout for a new space in New York City.

This time though, it looks certain that the cocktail geeks of NYC are loosing one of their havens for good. LeNell plans to kick back and open a cocktail-oriented retreat in Mexico. We think we have our next vacation planned.

Of course, we have video:

[Editor's Update – 7/22/2009 9pm: At the request of Ms. Smothers, we've removed the video from our site. She didn't wish to deny the story, and a number of sources have already verified its authenticity; she simply maintains a personal preference about video of her appearing on the web. Since we respect her and understand that she was unaware she was being recorded, we’ve chosen to comply with her request. We will, however, maintain a copy of the video should anyone request a copy to confirm what we've reported.]

[Editor’s Update – 7/22/2009 10pm: Additional note of clarification – we did not record the video of Ms. Smothers. It was provided to us anonymously by someone who was in attendance at the Louis 649 event. Upon receiving Ms. Smothers’ request and learning that she was recorded without consent, we agreed to remove it.]

While we’ll miss LeNell, and her wonderful store full of whiskey and bitters, we wish her well on her new adventure!

I had the extreme pleasure this past July 4th weekend to journey 90 miles north of New York City to visit Tuthilltown Spirits – the home of one of my all-time favorite whiskeys, Hudson Baby Bourbon.

Physically located in the heart of the Hudson Valley, near New Paltz, NY, Tuthilltown Spirits is the spiritual center of a revival that has been a long-time coming. Humility takes over when distillery partner Ralph Erenzo talks about his craft. He says, “There’s nothing magic here – It’s just whiskey. Really good whiskey.” But one need only set foot on the grounds of Tuthilltown Spirits to know differently, and none other than the New York Times agrees.

Tuthilltown Spirits is the first producer of whiskey (or any grain whiskey for that matter)  in New York State since prohibition. And this is no mass-produced-industrial-conglomerate operation.  Every batch of bourbon, rye, corn whiskey, rum and vodka is hand-crafted, hand-bottled, hand-labeled, and hand-numbered (seriously – there’s just a guy with a red marker writing the batch and bottle number of each bottle as the wax seal dries.)

Gable Erenzo, a distilleryman himself (as well as brand ambassador, and Ralph’s son), took us on a tour of the operation. Tuthilltown uses two German copper-pot stills that they’ve installed in the old granary on the property. The rye, wheat, corn, barley, apples and other ingredients all come from either their own property, or local New York State farms. (The only exception is the blackstrap molasses they bring up from Louisiana to make the Hudson River Rum.) Every batch is then aged in small American Oak barrels before it’s bottled, sealed and shipped to those of us lucky enough to enjoy it.

After the tour, the crew was kind enough to allow those of us who were interested to help kick off the rye harvest for the season. Trust me – if you’ve never had the experience of using a sickle to hand-cut the rye that will go into your favorite whiskey, you’ve really missed out on something special. The cynics among us might think the staff was just looking for some free labor, but trust me, we weren’t really making much of a dent in their crop (there was still plenty left to cut by the time we were done.) As Ralph described it to us, their intent was really just to help us understand their process, and what really goes into making a quality spirit. Mission accomplished there – I had a great time (and got some good exercise to boot!)

Last but not least, what trip to a local artisan distillery would be complete without a tasting? After coming in from the fields, we had a chance to taste examples of what would become of the fruits of our labors. Here I had my first taste of raw corn whiskey – what some might call Moonshine. This is 100% corn whiskey right off the still – no sugar added, no aging required. It’s clear, with a soft aroma, but don’t let that fool you – it’ll put hair on your chest.

I also tried the Hudson Four Grain Bourbon Whiskey – made from rye, wheat, corn and malted barley. It’s a very robust bourbon, rounded out by the blend of flavors from the four different key ingredients. And I finished our tasting with what I knew to be my favorite – the Hudson Baby Bourbon, made from 100% corn. It’s relatively mild, and a little sweet, but very flavorful. You’ll often find it in my glass at the end of a long day.

Finally, I know I’ve been gushing a bit, so I feel the need to make something clear. One of the benefits of writing about spirits and cocktails is that you get invited to a lot of events, and companies send you lots of free samples of their product. That may tend to influence some people, but I always aim to be objective and neutral. Nothing I’ve told you about today has been tainted in anyway by the folks at Tuthilltown – I haven’t received a single dollar or a single bottle for free. My friend Terry and I took our own car up to Tuthilltown – nobody paid for our trip – and as we were wrapping up our day, I purchased three bottles of whiskey from Tuthilltown out of my own pocket. No samples. No discounts. I paid for it myself – it’s that good.

I’ll leave it at that. You can find the rest of the pictures from our trip on our Flickr pool. Many thanks to Ralph, Gable, Peter, and all the folks at Tuthilltown Spirits for a wonderfully enjoyable visit!

Cheers,

Josh

Serious Eats has a great story today about the High Tech Cocktails class being taught at the French Culinary Institute. The class is being taught by Nils Noren and Dave Arnold, professors at the FCI and proprietors of Cooking Issues – their “Tech’N Stuff” blog. The combination of “cocktails” and “high tech” has me all wound up. This is a must read.

Cheers!

I had the good fortune to attend a tasting last night of Macallan scotch. This wasn’t any ordinary tasting though – this was a Twitter Tasting! My cocktail-blogging colleagues and I took a break from our AA meetings to all get together in one place, taste amazing scotch, and broadcast our feedback via Twitter in real time. Our tweets were projected onto the wall so we could keep up with each others feedback, and the best part is, the entire conversation is preserved under the Twitter hash tag #Macallan. So even if you missed us last night, you can relive the entire event (including my feedback on the Macallan, and some great conversation with @halw, @livethelushlife, @nybarfly, @ekeyNYC, and many others) on Twitter. It’s a beautiful thing.

Once you’ve caught up, send me a tweet and let me know what you think.

Cheers!